A Question of Mercy
by BellaAodh
Summary: Lily Fairchild is about to begin her journey as a vigilant of Stendarr, but the world isn't as black and white as she previously believed. Now she must decide for herself what the meaning of mercy is. Dovahkiin/Sofia


Lily Fairchild sat on her bed in her quaint room in the Hall of Vigilants. She played with her red hair tying it into two messy braids. She grasped her right hand with her left to steady the shaking, she took a deep breath and stared at the floor. Keeper Carcette had announced her debut as a full fledged Vigilant of Stendarr, worthy of going out into Skyrim to carry out their noble came to the Hall when she was just a little girl, she remembered the face of the kind vigilant who escorted her to the hall promising safety, and guidance under Stendarr. She didn't remember her parents who died in a vampire attack that left her under the care of the Vigilantes who arrived in time to spirit her away forever. She was to young to remember any of that, but she was raised by the Vigilantes who came to the hall, their morals, their beliefs, she held on to them as though it was the only thing that held her identity and all she was together.

She remembered Carcette, and even a man named Isran scolding her growing up, the mischievous child who got herself into all kinds of trouble. They often wondered if she would ever make a proper soldier of Stendarr, regardless of her aptitude for humor she only desperately wanted to hunt daedra and the unholy abominations that plagued Tamriel, to have a purpose she could cling to. She learned young to wear a facade, that her tendencies to play around were not tolerated by other Vigilants and no one would take her seriously if she acted on impulse, a serious attitude was always best.

Her partner was to be another newly full fledged member, Verlaylis. He was another peculiar case of having been raised by the Vigilants at a young age, he was found wandering around the outskirts of Windhelm lost and disoriented, traumatized by some horrific encounter with a dremora of all things. It was a miracle he had not died of hypothermia. Unlike Lily though he spent a lot of his life on the road training with older Vigilants on the job instead of being confined to the Hall. She took one last deep breath and got up to leave her home to start the life she had been preparing for since she was four years old. She found her new partner waiting for her outside the Hall. Wearing alteration robes, a heavy fur coat and an amulet of Stendarr he greeted her with a grin, which Lily briefly thought of returning but didn't. They started on their journey together, a letter discussing strange rumors going on in Helgan was crumpled up in Lily's hand. Verlaylis was more than happy to fill the silence with empty chatter to try to occupy their minds on something other than the biting cold as they trudged through the snow.

Lily hardly paid attention to him, her mind preoccupied with finding a good place to camp out for the night before the sun went down, they were still too far away from any taverns and had few septims to spare. Finally they found a large overhang on the side of a cliff, perfect for keeping their campsite dry from the snow. They set up camp together and soon enough Lily found herself sitting across a campfire from Verlaylis and out of reasons to politely ignore conversation.

"...Well?" Verlaylis said breaking Lily from her thoughts and bringing her attention back to the campsite. Her brief snips of replies to his questions, noncommittal grunts, and nods in his direction were starting to make her a boring companion to be stuck with.

" Come on you have to talk to me sometime." He said.

" I am talking to you." Lily defended. He gave her a tired look and pulled out a bottle of ale from his bag.

"Loosen up and have a drink with me at least." He held out the bottle for her to take expectantly.

" Were out here on a mission we can't be getting drunk in the middle of the wilderness." She brushed him off turning her head to look away from him.

"What happened to you? You weren't always like this." He whispered, letting his outreached arm drop.

" Shut up." She muttered irritated, reaching out and snatching the bottle of ale out of his hands and taking a swig.

" That's more like it." He smirked, taking a swig out of his own bottle of ale.

" Don't take this to mean i'm going to start partying and dancing around the campfire with you intoxicated."

" While that would be inappropriate conduct for dignified Vigilants such as ourselves, It would probably do you some good." He joked, giving her a mock scolding. Lily scoffed at his suggestion, and finished of the last of her ale, letting the alcohol take the edge off the cold. Verlaylis got up and stretched.

" Well at least you're talking to me now, I'll consider that progress." He announced before leaving her to retire to his tent for the night. Lily sat alone at the fire for awhile longer staring into the flames, she found another bottle of ale in Verlaylis' rucksack and downed it in one go before putting out the fire and going to bed and allowing the alcohol to lull her into an easy sleep.

A seven year old Lily tried to stifle her giggles as she peeked around the corner of the Nightcallers temple outside of Dawnstar, she spied Verlaylis, his back facing her, he appeared to be scouting out the area, for possible danger, or for Lily. She quietly crept up from behind him then leaped out and hugged him catching him by surprise.

"Lily!" He shouted, caught of guard by her sudden assault, she crumpled to the ground overcome by hysterical fits of laughter.

" You said I couldn't scare you because you're older and more experienced but I scared you!" She taunted him throwing a tofft of snow at him.

"you also said you would give me that daedric dagger you found if I did." She said more seriously and more than a little bit of a hint of pout could be heard in her voice, as she crossed her arms. Verlaylis looked a little pale and uncomfortable at this, but he knelt down beside her where she was sitting in the snow and looked her hard in the eyes.

" OK but you gotta promise me you won't tell any of the adults especially keeper Carcett, or we will both be in big trouble got it?" He pulled out the daedric dagger he had hidden away, but pulled it away from her when she reached for it.

" Promise Lily?"

" I promise Verlaylis." She rolled her eyes at him, but he let her take the dagger from him this time.

" Right, now remember we are here on some serious business." He said standing up, wagging his finger at her screwing his face up in a serious expression.

" This is a real ancient Daedric shrine, so we Vigilants have been sent here to hunt down the daedric prince Vaermina. He said in his best self important voice, eager to call attention back to their game of pretend before any of the adults discovered were they snuck off to. Lily cradled the dagger in her hand and giggled at his proclamation, her concentration for their game was broken.

" Verlaylis stop being so serious!"

Lily awoke from her dream with a start. A monstrous howl tore her back to her tiny leather tent and the bed roll that was placed on the uneven cold ground that she was lying on top of. It didn't take her long to gather her thoughts, her mind was always alert, ready for the hunt. She grabbed a silver dagger she had hidden under her bed roll and darted out of her tent. She looked around wildly scanning the area for the threat, and her companion. She spotted him on top of the overhang, crouched down and his bow drawn, his back facing her reminding her eerily of the memory she dreamed of. She scrambled up to join him while retaining her stealth the best she could. She crouched beside him flanking him with her dagger ready in hand. Her eyes followed the direction Verlaylis arrow was aimed at and saw it behind some low shrubbery, a few trees obscured them from its immediate view.

" Werewolf." She breathed. Verlaylis looked at her out of the corner of his eye, Lily knew he was silently asking if she was ok. Her first hunt, she took a deep breath and nodded in response. They crept towards the beast slowly not even daring to breath, they knew that they only had a few moments before it caught their scent, then they could only rely on their trained reflexes, and quick thinking. The werewolf was pawing at the ground and grunting, on closer inspection Lily could see that it was disemboweling a deer with fang and claw.

She moved ahead of Verlaylis edging closer towards the backside of the creature while Verlaylis kept his distance to secure a good shot, while keeping close enough he could react if needed. Lily covered her mouth and nose to try to keep herself from gagging at the smell of the freshly made corpse. Disgusting as it was she knew that the kill was excellent luck for them, not only would it keep the beast distracted, the stench of blood and death would hopefully blind it's senses to them longer. Verlaylis was beginning to fidget his eyes darting back in forth from their query to Lily, she prayed to the nine that his nerve wouldn't leave him now. She was almost in striking distance now and the monster had no inkling it was being hunted. The slurping and grunting the creature made as it devoured the animal was almost more than she could take, the thing was as big as a troll with arms the size of its legs and its claws the length of a grown mans forearm. She closed in now raising her dagger for the attack.

She hesitated a moment too long, just as she raised her dagger the wind stirred and the monster caught their scent. Before Lily could react the werewolf spun its head to look at her, its face inches from hers. She gasped and took a step back the creature opened its mouth in a snarl and loomed over her with its full height. Her mind seized knowing her dagger to be inadequate to fight the beast head on, and she had no hope to outrun it. An arrow whizzing past both the werewolf's face and hers embedded itself into the tree beside them awaking her back to her senses. Both her and the beast turned to look at Verlaylis who was drawing another arrow from his quiver, his hands steady, his gaze met the creatures, there was no fear there now. But he didn't release another arrow. The werewolf took a few steps towards him, its growl promised an attack, yet he still didn't take the shot. The monster crouched positioning itself to leap, but Lily sprang into action first and landed a fatal blow with her dagger, stabbing it under the arm between the ribs, she pushed the handle with her left hand for good measure as she attacked, piercing the werewolf's lung. It stumbled and fell to the ground in a heap, struggling for breath, but soon fell quiet as the dreaded thing gave up. Lily yanked her dagger out of the fallen werewolf and spun on Verlaylis.

"Why didn't you take the shot?" She snapped rounding on him.

"Excuse me?" He said indignantly, but his act lacked heart.

" You missed the first shot on purpose I saw your hands you weren't even shaking, you expect me to believe you missed it by an inch on accident? You didn't even take the second shot even though you had a clear view and he was about to shred you to pieces.

" You think I would miss a shot that could have cost you your life on purpose?"

" You should shoot me next time it would be more believable."

He turned away from her angrily but did not refute her accusation again.

" Are you crazy?" She shouted at him, waving her dagger about in anger.

" I was going to shoot him." He said at last. Lily snorted at his response.

" I was just making sure I had to kill it first." He said quietly not meeting her gaze.

" Why on Nirn would you not have to? It was a werewolf that's why we are here in the first place!" She couldn't even begin to understand what he was saying.

" There was a human in there somewhere, there are some monsters that resist their nature, I've seen it Lily." He looked at her now, his voice was strong as he said this, somehow he really meant what he was saying she thought.

" I can't believe you're saying this." She said maybe more to herself then to him, she shook her head, she could no longer look at him. She turned away from him and stormed back to their campsite.

Lily did not wait up for him as she stomped off into the campsite closing herself off in her tent. Gripping her arms in a futile attempt to prevent her body from shaking she sat on her cot her heart still pounding from her first hunt. Being trained from such a young age she didn't anticipate feeling so vulnerable and scared, but she had never been in a real fight before so what did she expect? She breathed in deeply trying to regain control of herself, her nails digging into her arms, this sudden loss of strength was far worse than if she had fallen in battle she thought to herself. As she struggled to fall asleep that night she never heard Verlaylis return to the campsite that night.


End file.
